Page 48 - 2021 March 16th Japanese and Korean Art, Christie's New York City

30 MITSUTA HARUO (B. 1980)

Sawagani (Geothelphusa dehaani)

The copper, bronze and brass articulated
sculpture of a river crab finely constructed of
numerous hammered parts jointed togather
with movable limbs and eyes
2 in. (5.1 cm.) wide
With original wood box sealed Haru

$2,000-3,000

Because the crab crawls sideways, never backwards,
samurai interpreted the crab as a symbol of bravery.
The claws and hard shell of the crab also relate
to the iron armor of warriors, who frequently wore
fantastic iron helmets in the form of the crab. Since
the Edo period (1615–1868), the crab has featured in
the jizai work of the Myochin school of metalsmiths
up to the pioneer of articulated sculpture in the
modern period, Takase Kozan (1868–1894).
Though most jizai crabs are of the small, freshwater
variety (sawagani), there are rarer examples of
swimming crabs (watarigani), such as one in the
British Museum. The smallest known articulated
crab with 0.8 cm shell is in the Kiyomizu Sannenzaka
Museum, Kyoto.
In Mandarin Chinese, crab is pronounced xie, a
homophone for “harmony”. As the shell of the crab
means both “armor”, jia, and “first”, the crab also
connotes success in the civil examination required
for advancement.